Los Angeles Eco-Village

Our dear apartment managers of the past several years, John and Sandy Maliga, are retiring and moving north to be closer to grandchildren. What a treat it has been to have this team with us for almost five years, and I’m happy for them to be closer to family.

Entrance to main building in L.A. Eco-Village

And so we are searching for a Resident Manager for our 45 unit Urban Soil-Tierra Urbana Limited Equity Housing Cooperative right here in the Los Angeles Eco-Village.

If you, or someone or some bodies, you know might be interested and qualified in joining our Management Team in our intensely urban intentional community, please see our Job Description and required and desired qualifications here And submit your letter and resume to:urbansoilmanagersearchcommittee@googlegroups.com

I was honored and delighted to have a personal meeting with the Mayor this week. The Mayor goes way back with LAEV to before he became our Councilman, and we only owned one property instead of four. So it’s always a delight to see how far both he and LAEV have come in the past dozen years or so. I asked if we could take a photo, so I could have bragging rights when he’s our President some day.

Here a few of the topics we got to talk about, each of which the Mayor was supportive of. Still a ways to go on advocacy work. But with the help of the “less cars” folks, the permaculture folks, Teresa Baker and her LATCH Collective, Hans Johnson leading the Styrofoam ban, and LAUSD Superintendent Michelle King, and, of course, the passionate folks who live in/at the Los Angeles Eco-Village, it’s all within reach!

Return the original intent of AB 744 for car-free affordable housing

Mayor Garcetti and Lois

developments near transit. The City watered this bill down so that developers couldn’t go less than 0.5 spaces per unit. LAEV could demonstrate this for our future developments.

all from a plot that gets no direct sun between Nov to Feb! I harvested about 15 lbs of sweet potatoes from 3 plants. I’m amazed that they grow in the shade and seem to mature in cool temperatures. They don’t seem to need much water.

Their flowers were blooming Oct – Dec.

Check out the personality of this 4 pounder! You can see that gramma is happy about it too!

First fruit tree planting on northeast corner of Bimini & White House Place,
Earth Day April 1993. Tree was named “Percy Persimmons.”

It was a Wednesday afternoon. I was sitting in my living room with Lottie Cohen working on the book we were co-authoring: Cooperative Housing Compendium. (Email me if you are interested in getting the on-line link to this book).

I lived in the four-plex across the street from the Bimini Apartments where the White House Place Learning Garden is going. Mine was the lower east unit. My front door was always open, weather permitting, and I didn’t use curtains or shades on the windows, so
there was a clear view out to White House, the intersection and Bimini Place. Lottie and I were sitting at a round glass table in the living room/library/office facing the windows and open door.

I had just returned two days before from Adelaide, Australia where I had been invited as a keynote speaker at the Second International Ecocities Conference and was full of enthusiasm for finishing the book and starting to focus more heavily on ecovillage planning.

There were always pedestrians on Bimini, and there were pedestrians that day. But suddenly, Lottie abruptly interrupted our work: “Lois, there’s rioting out there. We need to leave now. Grab what you need, I’m taking you home with me!” Continue reading →